When He Is Gone
by Titianum454
Summary: Percy is gone, life from Annabeth's point of View    mostly    and what happens after
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Im going to make this quick and hopefully the only one- I will be slow on updating because I do have a life also and this is my first story so comments would be nice**

Chapter 1:

The stormy weather outside matched her mood. Annabeth looked out the widow of the motel she was staying at trying not to cry again as thoughts of _him_ seemed to fill her mind. Too late…

_FLASHBACK_

_They were sitting by the lake holding hands and looking out at the sea. Suddenly he started laughing next to her. _

"_What?" Annabeth asked._

"_I was just remembering the look on Clarisse's face when we came out of the water 30 minutes after she threw us in…" Percy trailed off relishing the memory._

_Annabeth joined in on his laughter. "Yeah that was shortly before you found yourself at the bottom of the lake again." _

"_Which, now that you mention it, I cannot look at without wanting to repeat what we did down there"_

"_Shut up. We may be dating but I can still punch you hard enough to bruise" was my loving reply._

_At that moment he looked at his shield/watch, a gift from his brother Tyson, "We should start heading back."_

_At the foot of my cabin we kissed and I watched him walk away to Cabin 3. Little did I know that that was the last I would see of him._

_END FLASHBACK_

A sob tore from my throat as I buried my face into the cheap, scratchy pillow. "Oh Percy, where have you gone!" My anguish was absorbed by the pillow but it offered little comfort.

After about an hour of fitful sleep I woke up and turned on the news, painfully hopeful that he would be mentioned somewhere in the top stories. It really isn't that stranger of a thing to be looking for given the fact that on his first quest he was all over the news. Nothing but for the first morning in months I was able to hold strong. That is until the food tray came and I saw a doughnut with blue icing on it. Gods! I am normally not this emotional.

In the next room a man is yelling and down the hall I can hear the happy couple who I literally ran into last night when getting ice. Next to me my phone rings. Half-way through the first ring I pounce on it hoping it is one of the many people looking for Percy. Please tell me they found him. Please tell he he's safe and coming home.

"Hello…" I ask breathlessly.

When I hear the voice my face light up. When I actually hear what the voice is saying I agree with the news- it's going to be a very bad day (granted they were talking about the storms in the Atlantic- probably caused by Poseidon, he had just recently found out that Percy was MIA). I had only gotten half my wish.

"Ohh… okay Thalia. No. No. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine at all. No, instead you sound like shit" was Thalia's ever so kind reply.

"Really," I said, knowing I do but not wanting to prove her right, "it must be the bad connection that's all you know that-"

"Stop lying to me. I have been your friend for a long time and I know when something is getting to you" Thalia says, effectively stopping my upcoming rant about phone service in the US which would have been full of complementary facts and reliable sources.

"Yeah well….." I trail off looking for a safe topic and wracking my overflowing mind for something she would talk about and leave me alone. _Aha_! "So how is your brother Thals?"

I had recently found out that our new camper was none other than Thalia's missing brother Jason, a key factor in her running away from home.

"Well he was fine the last time I saw him but you know I'm looking for Percy and he is on his own quest so… Damn! Look Annabeth, as much as I love you, this phone has started to attract monsters but I just really needed to check up on you. Don't worry we'll find him and you know what to do."

I heard the beginning sound of a battle before Thalia hung up but I wasn't really worried, she and the Hunters are able to take care of themselves. I walk to the window with the 6th disposable phone this month dip it in the kerosene and put a match to it. After it is caught I put it in a steal bucket and watch it burn, after it became a crisp I threw it out the window packed my things and left.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

I was getting angrier by the day. Why isn't anyone trying! We have multiple teams spread around the country and even little Nico is helping but still no Percy! The only reasonable answer for this is that no one cared enough like I did to put in their full effort.

All of a sudden I heard a voice behind me. "Hey Annabeth!" I turn around hopefully even though the voice I wanted to hear was deeper and richer than this one and much closer to my heart.

"Oh… it's you." I said sulkily to the Iris-message when I couldn't cling to false hope any longer.

"I'm not even going to bother to feel offended; I know you wish I was Percy."

"Sorry…" I said to the image, not even trying to deny it. "so how was your quest?"

"It was a success and along the way I learned some information, I have an idea but I need you to come back to Camp and help me figure out if I am right about it or not."

"Jason… I'm in Arkansas looking for Percy."

"I know but…wait. Why are you there?"

"Following, what seems like now, a very bad lead." There was little real hope in the first place but I was growing desperate.

"Well get back to camp I may know something that will help you find Percy- "

He didn't have a chance to say another word as I mistakenly tried to grab his arm to make him tell me more, therefore breaking the connection.

"Damn it!"

I ran to the nearest train station to catch a train. As soon as I got there I realized I didn't have enough money for the tickets. A stream of cruses flew from my mouth as I turned to leave, ready to walk all the way back to Camp Half-Blood. Hey I did it before.

Just then I crashed into a middle-aged woman who looked about fifty with curling brown hair and eyes that seemed to change color. No it must have just been the light. But wait, there it was again, of a moment they looked the exact shade of beautiful green as Percy's eyes. _Stop it! Your just overly emotional right now, there is no possible way that just happened. _

"Sorry" I mumbled to her as I walked past.

"Hey, sweetheart, you look lost. Can I at least buy you a ticket so you can get home?"

Annabeth looked at the woman incredulously, "How did you know I needed a ticket?"

"Because child I saw a lovely young lady come in with all the hope in the world and before she even fully crossed the lobby she turned around dejected. I do not like to see people feeling so bad when a little love can fix it" was the woman's kind reply.

Still a little suspicious I accepted the offer for the ticket and boarded the first train to New York.

Aphrodite watched as Annabeth boarded the train. Who cares what Zeus says about quests, nothing (besides tests of her own making) will part this couple if she had anything to say about it.

Everything was fine until about 25 minutes into the ride when the passengers started to scream in terror.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I sprinted in the direction of the screams, fighting through the crowds of terrified people running in the opposite direction of the dining car. They became a kaleidoscope of different fabrics and colors swirling around me. A young man grabbed my arm and tried to lead me away from the commotion but I managed to lose him quickly in the crowd.

I reached the dining car to look in on mass destruction. A massive hole, formed by jagged metal and broken windows, covered 9 feet of the wall. The tables and booths were scattered all over the place while some poor mortals were lying on the ground injured. The roof had craters in it about the size of a serving platter. I guessed whatever monster it was was on the roof of the car. I back tracked to the joining platform of the cars and climbed up the service ladder.

When I reached the roof I wanted to turn around and go with the people who had fled the car. On top of the train was a drakon that stood 20 feet long and about 5 feet high. It was pure black with, what seemed to be, a crackling blue net around it but it turned out to be covered in electricity. Ever few steps it took little lightning bolts came off its body and fried whatever it touched be it a bird or a tree. It had claws made of Olympian silver that were around 6 inches long and fangs of the same material stretching about 6-7 inches long. On the back of each of its 4 legs was a row of spikes that extended from the foot to the juncture created when the leg and torso meet. All this would have made any sane person turn back but I had to save the humans, it was my duty. When I glanced at its eyes I froze. They were pure white, like you would see in those old zombie movies, no pupils not irises no nothing.

I took out my dagger and charged at the drakon aiming for it neck but it dogged and I ended up hitting it on its back but my knife bounced off its scaly hide and I received an electric shock which made my hair stand on end and reminded me of my friend Thalia. The drakon raised its head and then swung back its leg, cutting me with its spikes. I rolled under the body of the drakon and stood up by its backside. I do not think anyone full realizes how fast a train is going until they are on top of it. I had to angle myself so that the wind would not blow me away and made a note to be careful keeping my balance on this thing.

The drakon raised its head again and turned while keeping its left side from me. I saw this but had little time to think about it before the drakon lunged at me again. I stabbed it in the mouth but again it made no damage to the drakon but my forearm got impaled with its left incisor.

I stepped back holding my wounded arm close to my body and decided it was time to dodge and just gain information about this particular drakon. It always raised its head before an attack, it always kept its left side from me, its skin was impenetrable anywhere, you could not touch it without getting shocked, the eyes had nothing that would let light in and it seemed that its teeth were poisonous if the fire in my arm was anything to go by.

I was starting to tire from all the dodging; normally Percy was here to help me-Oh Gods Percy. When the grief hit me something else did too, the tail of the drakon. I feel over the side of the train and had to grip the edge to keep from falling to the ground which was rocky and covered in hard packed dirt. The dragon raise its head again, that's it! The drakon is blind and targeting me by my smell. I started to turn, still keeping its left side form me but from this angle I could see one spot on its left underbelly that was not covered in the electric net like all the rest. That must be where I had to stab to kill it but it seemed to know how to protect its only weakness well. I had little chance of hitting it. Think. Think. Think! You are a child of Athena, are you not? Your mother would be ashamed. Where is your plan? Shut up voice in my head….

Yes! I let go of the rim I was hanging on and launched myself through the hole into the dining car, ripping my shirt on the metal. I looked for what I would need… there. A designer bag was perched on a seat in the back in one of the only section so the car not demolished by the original appearance of the drakon. Speaking of which I heard, and felt, its footsteps on the roof. I had to move fast before he found out where I was.

I reached the bag and searched through its contents, there. I pulled out a bottle of Dior perfume, it would have to do though I was hoping for Channel No. 5, it smelled stronger. I climbed back up the ladder and waited for the drakon to turn around again. It did, as soon as it was in spraying range I but the nozzle right up to the monster's nose and sprits it multiple times until I was sure I would cover my scent (and that is not much, I'm telling you, you could smell someone wearing this from a mile off). The drakon started shaking its head to clear the scent to I dove under its body, dodging its stamping feet and stab the one spot which seemed to be vulnerable. My hunch was correct and my dagger went right through the skin leaving behind a pile of golden dust. I climbed down from the roof collapsed in the dining car utterly exhausted. A few second s after I began to hear voices around me. The last thing I before I passed out was someone tending to my injured arm.


End file.
